Ezra Klein asks if Jim Webb is “too good for the Vice-Presidency”. And perhaps he is. Or rather, he’d be more useful to Democrats if he remained in the Senate, uninhibited by the restrictions imposed by the Vice-Presidency. And perhaps that too is so. Nonetheless Ezra’s piece also demonstrates the extent to which Webb is by some way the most interesting but also, perhaps, riskiest choice Obama could make.
Still, here’s another notion: Obama might consider naming some members of his cabinet this summer, creating a British-style shadow cabinet to act as spokesmen for his campaign during the general election. Clearly, all such nominees would remain subject to Congressional confirmation, but there’d be some advantage to Obama suggesting who his choices for State, Defence, the Treasury and Justice might be. It’s true that John McCain doesn’t have any executive experience either, but one would expect the Republicans to make an issue of Obama’s inexperience at a national level.
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